Noam Chomsky
20 October 2014. Posted in News
We have come
perilously close to disaster before, says Noam Chomsky, and are toying with
catastrophe again.
In October
2014, the Plymouth Institute for Peace Research (www.pipr.co.uk) asked Noam
Chomsky to comment on some important world developments, including the threat
of nuclear war, the recent escalation of violence in Gaza, and the growth of
ISIS in Iraq.
This year
commemorates the centenary of the 1914-18 First World War. What are your
reflections?
THERE IS much
debate about assignment of responsibility/blame for the outbreak of this horrendous
conflict, along with general agreement about one point: There was a high level
of accident and contingency; decisions could easily have been different,
avoiding catastrophe. There are ominous parallels to nuclear catastrophe.
An
investigation of the history of near-confrontations with nuclear weapons
reveals how close the world has come to virtual self-annihilation, numerous
times, so much so that escape has been a near miracle, one unlikely to be
perpetuated for too long. The record
underscores the warning of Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein in 1955 that we
face a choice that is “stark and dreadful and inescapable: Shall we put an end
to the human race; or shall mankind renounce war?”
A second no
less chilling observation is the alacrity of the rush to war on all sides, in
particular the instant dedication of intellectuals to the cause of their own
states, with a small fringe of notable exceptions, almost all of whom were
punished for their sanity and integrity – a microcosm of the history of the
cultivated and educated sectors of society, and the mass hysteria that they
often articulate.
The
commemorations began around the same time as Operation Protective Edge. It is a
tragic irony that Gaza is home to WWI memorial graves. What were the real—as
opposed to rhetorical reasons—for Israel’s latest assault on Gaza?
It is
critically important to recognize that a pattern was established almost a
decade ago and has been followed regularly since: A ceasefire agreement is
reached, Israel makes it clear that it will not observe it and continues its
assault on Gaza (and illegal takeover of what it wants elsewhere in the
occupied territories), while Hamas observes the ceasefire, as Israel concedes,
until some Israeli escalation elicits a Hamas response, offering Israel a
pretext for another episode of “mowing the lawn” (in Israel’s elegant
parlance).
I have
reviewed the record elsewhere; it is unusually clear for historical
events. The same pattern holds for
Operation Protective Edge. Another of
the series of ceasefires had been reached in November 2012. Israel ignored it
as usual, Hamas observed it nevertheless.
In April
2014, Gaza-based Hamas and the Palestine Authority in the West Bank established
a unity government, which at once adopted all of the demands of the Quartet
(the US, EU, UN, Russia) and included no Hamas members. Israel was infuriated, and launched a brutal
operation in the West Bank, extending to Gaza, targeting mainly Hamas. As always there was a pretext, but it quickly
dissolves on inspection. Finally
killings in Gaza elicited a Hamas response, followed by Protective Edge.
The reasons
for Israel’s fury are not obscure. For
20 years, Israel has sought to separate Gaza from the West Bank, with full US
support and in strict violation of the Oslo Accords that both had signed, which
declare the two to be a single indivisible territorial entity.
A look at the
map explains the reasons. Gaza offers
the only access for Palestine to the outside world; without free access to
Gaza, any autonomy that might be granted to some fragmented Palestinian entity
in the West Bank will be effectively imprisoned.
The
Governments of Israel, Britain, and the US are surely thrilled with the
appearance of ISIS; a new ‘threat’ providing them with new excuses for war and
internal repression. What are your thoughts about ISIS and the latest bombing
of Iraq?
Reporting is
limited, so what we can conclude is necessarily a construction from scattered
evidence. To me it looks like this:
ISIS is a
real monstrosity, one of the many horrifying consequences of the US
sledgehammer, which among other crimes, incited sectarian conflicts that may by
now have destroyed Iraq finally and are tearing the region to shreds.
The almost
instantaneous defeat of the Iraqi army was quite an astonishing event. This was an army of 350,000 men, heavily
armed, trained by the US for over a decade.
The Iraqi army had fought a long and bitter war against Iran through the
1980s. As soon as it was confronted by a
few thousand lightly armed militants, the commanding officers fled and the
demoralized troops either fled with them or deserted or were massacred.
By now ISIS
controls almost all of Anbar province and is not far from Baghdad. With the Iraqi army virtually gone, the
fighting in Iraq is in the hands of Shiite militias organized by the sectarian
government, which are carrying out crimes against Sunnis that mirror those of
ISIS.
With crucial
assistance from the military wing of the Turkish Kurds, the PKK, the Iraqi
Kurdish Peshmerga has apparently held off ISIS.
It seems that the PKK are also the most significant force that rescued
the Yazidi from extermination and are holding off ISIS in Syria, including the
crucial defense of Kobane.
Meanwhile
Turkey has escalated its attacks against the PKK, with US tolerance if not
support. It appears that Turkey is
satisfied to watch its enemies – ISIS and the Kurds – killing one another
within eyesight of the border, with awful consequences likely if the Kurds
cannot withstand the ISIS assault on Kobane and beyond.
Another major
opponent of ISIS, Iran, is excluded from the US “coalition” for policy and
ideological reasons, as of course is their ally Assad. The US-led coalition includes a few of the
Arab oil dictatorships that are themselves supporting competing jihadi groups. The major one, Saudi Arabia, has long been
the major source of funding for ISIS as well as providing its ideological
roots—no small matter.
ISIS is an
extremist offshoot of Saudi Wahabi/Salafi doctrines, themselves an extremist
version of Islam; and a missionary version, using huge Saudi oil resources to
spread their teachings throughout much of the Muslim world. The US, like Britain before it, has tended to
support radical fundamentalist Islam in opposition to secular nationalism, and
Saudi Arabia has been a primary US ally since the family dictatorship was
consolidated and vast oil resources were discovered there.
The best
informed journalist and analyst of the region right now, Patrick Cockburn,
describes US strategy, such as it is, as an Alice-in-Wonderland construction,
opposing both ISIS and its main enemies, and loosely incorporating dubious Arab
allies with limited European support.
An
alternative would be to adhere to domestic and international law: appealing to
the UN Security Council and then following its lead, and seeking political and
diplomatic avenues to escape from the morass or at least mitigate its horrors. But that is almost unthinkable in US
political culture.
As military
operations in Iraq grow, NATO further destabilizes Ukraine. What are your
thoughts about the US-Russia proxy conflict and its potential for nuclear war?
It is an
extremely dangerous development, which has been brewing ever since Washington
violated its verbal promises to Gorbachev and began expanding NATO to the East,
right to Russia’s borders, and threatening to incorporate Ukraine, which is of
great strategic significance to Russia and of course has close historical and
cultural links.
There is a
sensible analysis of the situation in the leading establishment journal,
Foreign Affairs, by international relations specialist John Mearsheimer,
entitled “Why the Ukraine Crisis Is the West’s Fault.” The Russian autocracy is far from blameless,
but we are now back to earlier comments: we have come perilously close to
disaster before, and are toying with catastrophe again. It is not that possible peaceful solutions are
lacking.
One final
thought, about a dark and menacing cloud that looms over everything we discuss:
like the proverbial lemmings, we are marching resolutely towards an
environmental crisis that may well displace other concerns, in the not too
distant future.
http://stopwar.org.uk/news/who-s-winning-the-war-against-isis-no-contest-it-s-american-arms-manufacturers
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